Wordplay is a specific case of language use that can be found both in everyday communication and in literary texts. It can fulfill a range of functions: it can be entertaining and comical, it can conceal taboo (in double entendre, for instance), and in literary texts it also influences and supports figural characterisation. On yet another level, in these contexts of usage, wordplay also serves as a means to reflect on language and communication. Wordplay thus reveals surprising alternative readings - e.g., Two hunters meet. Both dead./Tout auteur dramatique est responsable de ses actes. - and emphasises the phonetic similarity of linguistic signs that also points towards relations on the level of content (e.g. Don’t just book it. Thomas Cook it./Knorr, j’adore). In this way, wordplay reflects on language itself; it is therefore one means of displaying linguistic awareness.

The metalinguistic reflection of wordplay is hence directed both at the recipient and, simultaneously, expresses this kind of reflection on the speaker’s side. The production of unexpected relations between linguistic units often has a comical effect and can be read as a sign of wit, e.g. in advertisements. In literary texts wordplay furthermore illustrates double communication - within the text but also between author and recipient - and does so more effectively than many other stylistic devices in that it breaks through mimesis and becomes auto-referential. Because of its artistic character and its function of metalinguistic reflection, wordplay is a genuine interface phenomenon that reveals characteristics of literary language in everyday communication and that also opens up the possibility to analyse literary texts from a linguistic perspective.